United Irishmen

"Widely seen as the birth of Irish republicanism, the Society of the United Irishmen was a movement founded in 1791 in Belfast by the city's leading merchants and intellectuals. Their movement was based upon the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity espoused by the French revolution of 1789. Led by a young Dublin barrister by the name of Theobald Wolfe Tone, the society desired an Ireland free from the authority of England and its sectarian Protestant ascendancy, thus embracing the Protestant, Catholic and dissenter traditions. The United Irishmen's Rebellion of 1798 failed facing the impossible odds of seasoned troops and British espionage." – Conflict Archive on the Internet.

Are you straight? — the United Irishmen had various "tests" by which members could question strangers to ascertain were they initiates. Mostly these involved some sort of spelling puzzle based on letters in the society's name. But amongst the lower orders, those who could not spell, the "test", or "catechism" as it was called, ran thus:

Q. — Are you straight?
A. — I am.
Q. — How straight?
A. — As straight as a rush.
Q. — Go on then?
A. — In truth, in trust, in unity and liberty.
Q. — What have you got in your hand?
A. — A green bough.
Q. — Where did it first grow?
A. — In America.
Q. — Where did it bud?
A. — In France.
Q. — Where are you going to plant it?
A. — In the crown of Great Britain.